Tribute to the Miners

I am so incredibly sad for the miners that lost their lives and those that are still missing after the explosion in West Virginia. I am also sad for those coal miners that have lost their lives throughout the history of the industry. I know little or nothing about the trade, but it seems incredibly perilous and thankless. Yet a vast majority of our economy depends upon it.

A fitting tribute is due to those miners. We should ensure that none of their family or friends die in a coal mine ever again. This cannot be done by simply adding rules and regulations for coal mine operators. Those have turned out to be completely ineffective. Nor can this be done by telling the residents to find different local employment outside the mine. That is simply impossible. The townspeople are essentially indentured servants of the mining company. Without that mine, there would be no other way to earn a living. When the choice is between working at a dangerous underground mine to provide for yourself and your family and not being able to support your loved ones, it's not much a choice, is it?

The only way to make sure that no more people die in coal mining accidents is to stop coal mining entirely. Replace coal mines with facilities dedicated to production of energy by alternative means. For instance, try a solar panel installation, a wind farm or a nuclear reactor. Unfortunately, two of those three types of alternate energy production techniques require access to a particular climate. Death Valley is well suited to solar energy production. The East and West coasts are particularly well suited to the production of wind energy.

For many of the areas traditionally associated with coal mining, that leaves nuclear reactors as the only viable option. There is a stigma associated with nuclear energy production and I can't argue with that. The site of those barrels looming on the horizon is very intimidating. However, it's very safe. As of 2006, "[n]o one has died of a radiation-related accident in the history of the U.S. civilian nuclear reactor program." Groups like Greenpeace, formerly opposed to nuclear energy, have reversed their opinion and now think that Nuclear energy is the only way to solve climate change. 1

Saving future generations for working in harsh, unsafe conditions seems like a fitting tribute for those who lost their lives in West Virginia.